Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, maker of the first successful Covid-19 vaccine, revealed that it made $3.5bn in profit on the vaccine during the first three months of 2021, about a quarter of its total revenue. Pfizer points out it did not accept any government money to produce the vaccine, but conveniently omits the facts that its German partner, BioNTech, did receive substantial government financial support, and the technology--messenger RNA--used to manufacture its drug was developed and patented by the US National Institutes of Health. Pfizer has agreed to contribute 40 million doses to COVAX the international partnership that distributes vaccines to poor countries. That figure is less than 2% of total doses it plans to produce in 2021. World Health Organization figures make clear that Pfizer has provided minimal help to the world’s poorest countries where there is a vaccine shortage. India is the best example of a developing nation facing a crippling increase in cases due to lack of vaccine and medical equipment. Pfizer sells it shot in the US for about $19.50 per dose, which is comparable to a flu shot.
Israel reportedly paid $30 a dose. Pfizer previously predicted that profit margin for the drug could be as high as twenty percent.
Use of the Pfizer vaccine is problematical for countries without a well-developed medical infrastructure since it requires transportation and storage in sub-zero refrigeration. Vaccines not requiring this special treatment such as Johnson & Johnson's and Astra-Zeneca's have run into problems surrounding possible rare side effects. In the US, use of the J&J vaccine was paused for a short time while cases of rare blood clots occurring were investigated. Astra-Zeneca experienced similar problems with EU regulators concerned with safety of its vaccine for elderly patients. Both companies said they would provide their medicine at cost. This chart from the
BBC shows the relative amount of public investment in each company's vaccine:
Progressive politicians like Senator Bernie Sanders have called on pharmaceutical companies to waive their intellectual property rights so the world can be provided more easily with vaccine. President Biden,
when running for office, said he supported
waiving patent rights by vaccine makers. Pharmaceutical companies are not enthusiastic about developing and marketing vaccines--they are risky, expensive to produce, and the life span is relatively short lived compared to popular products like pain killers. But as evidence of the SARS-CoV2 behavior accumulates it appears the virus will become chronic in which case vaccines sales will resemble the flu shot, worth several billion a year. Governments around the world have pledged to buy billions of doses of the COVID vaccines at set prices. India has resumed its negotiations with Pfizer after breaking them off over disagreeing whether an in-country trial would be required first. India recently experienced over 400,000 infections a day, no doubt providing added incentive to purchase an effective drug even with a healthy profit margin.
